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25 feb 2018
25/02/2018  2nd Sunday of Lent - B 

25/02/2018  2nd Sunday of Lent - B 

Reading 1, Genesis 22,1-2.9 * Psalm 115/116 * Reading 2, Romans 8,31b.34 * Gospel, Mark 9,2-10

 

The faith of whom is preparing to receive the Baptism needs to be purified and strengthened. Who approaches Jesus, in fact, often has the hope or the certainty that He is ready to intervene in order to solve some health issue, livelihood problem or emotional issue, and so on. In the first chapters of the Gospel, Saint Mark introduces us Jesus while He is being approached all the time by needy people: He listens to them, lets them move Him, but He is also letting us understand, or clearly tells us, that the reason for His presence in the world is another. He offers us the miracles as signs in order to make it easier for us to welcome the news of His «gospel», the good news of the paternity of God! Even His disciples cannot understand easily! They are like sleepy, they are letting themselves be influenced more by the expectations of the people than by the words of the Master.

Today Jesus chooses three of them, the first to follow Him, to whom he has given a nickname. He makes them accompany Him on a high Mountain. What happens on top of it is an event that is filled with teachings, with stimulus, with revelations. We need to content ourselves of highlighting only one part of it, the one that helps the catechumens to take a further step towards the baptism and us towards the maturity of our faith.

The light that shines and radiates from the person of Jesus helps the three disciples to take what they are going to see and hear seriously. The characters of Elijah and Moses talking with the Master, the fear, the cloud engulfing them, and, lastly, the voice coming from the cloud, these are messages that touch the mind and the heart of the men! They do not understand all at once, on the contrary, it seems really like they did not understand anything: as a matter of fact, Peter is thinking of a future of wealth, without problems.

While they are getting off the mountain, Jesus shows them the «key to the reading» of the event, referring to His resurrection from the dead. We heard this gospel after the text from the Genesis telling a story very well known to the mind and the faith of the disciples: Abraham, father in faith, is ready to offer his only child as a sacrifice! Abraham’s faith is the true faith, the one that God likes. Jesus’ disciples need to reach the level of that faith; the believers are not going to be true believers until they will find in themselves the same availability to obey shown by that patriarch! Those preparing for the baptism need to be ready not to receive benefits, but to give themselves completely over to the fatherly hands of God! Faith is not first of all believing that God can help us with our needs, - this is the common type of faith, common among the pagans as well -, but instead is being ready to offer to Him our life, to search for His word in order to make it true, and to obey Him, in this way taking part in His intensions and plans!

The disciples will need first of all to offer their Master, Jesus: he will die, he will be killed. They will not have to look at His death like a disgrace, but as a sacrifice, His sacrifice, but also theirs. They themselves will offer to the father the occurred death of the Son, and they will accompany it with the offer of themselves! Jesus’ death will be “costly in Yahweh's sight”, and just the same the offer of the disciples’ life! They will not be afraid to offer themselves, because, as Saint Paul says, “God is for us” and therefore nobody will “be against us”!

On the mountain has been heard God’s voice, defining Jesus, as His “Son”, as the “Beloved”, as His “favour”! These three definitions clearly refer to three characters which the Scripture talks about: the “Son” is the Messianic King whom the second Psalm refers to! The “beloved” is the beloved son of Abraham, brought by him on the mountain for the sacrifice! The one God’s “favour rests on” is the servant whom He “brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear” on, and bears the consequences of them.

Now the three disciples can finally say to know Jesus. They know Him in a new way, even if the shining light has left His face, even if Moses and Elijah have disappeared, even if the cloud is gone! Now they see Jesus in His deepest identity, the one that is worthy of owning their heart and their life. Now they start listening to Him with a new interest: the voice coming from the cloud was saying exactly something like that “Listen to him”! Now they are waiting for God’s words to come out of His mouth! They are waiting for them in order to live them.

We will prepare ourselves to live anew the grace of the baptism listening to God’s desires, without taking any notice of our ideas or feelings. What we have seen and heard on the mountain reassures us that Jesus is not deceiving us, that He is our true life! I want to say as well: “I beg you, Yahweh! I am your servant”!